Question 1

What is my metal fabrication company worth?

Accepted Answer

Fabrication companies are valued on adjusted EBITDA with unusual weight on signed backlog and verifiable job-level margin. Buyers discount earnings they cannot trace to individual jobs. The presence of field installation changes the analysis. A shop-only fabricator is valued like other industrial manufacturers. A fabricator that self-performs erection carries contract risk, licensing, and bonding into the transaction, and buyers evaluate the backlog contract by contract: what is signed, what margin is left in it, whether the price was set before or after the last material run-up, and what happens if the schedule slips. Owned heavy equipment and crane capacity are appraised and generally act as a floor under value rather than an addition. Certified welding procedures and current welder qualifications are transferable assets; a lapsed qualification found in diligence is a price adjustment rather than a deal breaker.

Question 2

Should I sell assets or stock?

Accepted Answer

Buyers generally prefer an asset purchase for the tax step-up and the liability protection. Sellers often prefer a stock sale for the tax treatment. The structure is negotiated, and it affects the after-tax proceeds more than a point of multiple does. In an asset sale the buyer purchases the equipment, inventory, contracts, and goodwill, and leaves most historical liabilities behind. That structure can create ordinary-income recapture for the seller on depreciated equipment, which raises the tax bill relative to capital-gains treatment. In a stock sale the buyer acquires the entity with its history, which is simpler for transferring contracts, permits, and licenses but riskier for the buyer, who will want broader representations and a larger escrow. Certain assets tip the decision: an entity-held contractor license, permits that are expensive to re-issue, or customer contracts with anti-assignment clauses all favor a stock structure. This is a question for a transaction attorney and a CPA together, early, not at the letter-of-intent stage.

Question 3

What is a quality of earnings report and do I need one?

Accepted Answer

A quality of earnings review is an independent accounting analysis of whether reported earnings are real and repeatable. Buyers commission one on nearly every deal in this size range, and sellers increasingly commission their own first. It is not an audit. The provider tests revenue recognition, tests each add-back, normalizes for one-time items, examines customer profitability, checks inventory valuation, and rebuilds a defensible EBITDA figure. Whatever it finds becomes the basis for the price. A seller-commissioned report, often called a sell-side quality of earnings, costs money up front and typically pays for itself twice: it finds the problems while there is still time to fix or explain them, and it shortens the buyer's own review, which reduces the number of weeks in which a deal can fall apart. For a manufacturing company with inventory, work in process, and percentage-of-completion accounting, it is close to essential.

Question 4

What happens to a North Carolina general contractor license in a sale?

Accepted Answer

A license issued to an entity generally continues through a stock sale, while an asset purchase requires the buying entity to hold its own license, with a qualifier, before it can perform the work. This matters for fabricators, mechanical suppliers, and any manufacturer that performs field installation. The license is held by the entity and depends on a qualifying individual who passed the examination, so if that qualifier is the selling owner and they leave at closing, the license is at risk regardless of structure. Buyers plan for this by identifying a qualifier in advance, by retaining the seller's qualifier for a period, or by choosing a stock structure specifically to preserve continuity. South Carolina has its own licensing regime with its own rules, which is a live issue for York County companies and for any company whose crews cross the state line to work.

Question 5

How does backlog affect what a fabricator is worth?

Accepted Answer

Signed backlog with verifiable margin supports the valuation directly. Quoted pipeline does not count, and backlog priced before a material cost increase can reduce value rather than add to it. Buyers evaluate backlog contract by contract, looking at what is signed, what has been billed, what margin remains, and whether the remaining cost estimates are reliable. Where percentage-of-completion accounting is used, the cost-to-complete estimates are effectively part of the earnings, and a quality-of-earnings review tests them. A backlog that has already consumed its contingency, or that was priced when steel was materially cheaper, transfers a loss to the buyer, and they will price it accordingly. The most valuable pre-sale work in fabrication is tightening job costing so that actual hours and actual material land against the job, because that is what makes the margin credible.

Metal Fabrication & Structural Steel in Hickory, NC

Metal Fabrication & Structural Steel in Hickory

Metal Fabrication & Structural Steel in Hickory: what a Catawba County company sells for, and who buys one

Ready to get started?

Metal Fabrication & Structural Steel in Hickory, NC

Charlotte Manufacturing Exits trust signals

Metal Fabrication & Structural Steel in Hickory

Metal Fabrication & Structural Steel in Hickory: what a Catawba County company sells for, and who buys one

Ready to get started?